Apple Releases Supplemental Security Update for OS X El Capitan

Tuesday January 17, 2017 10:57 AM PST by Juli Clover
OS X El Capitan LogoApple today released a new version of OS X El Capitan Security Update 2016-003, fixing an additional kernel issue that could cause Macs running the operating system to freeze up and become unresponsive.

The 2016-003 Security Update for OS X El Capitan was originally released on December 13 alongside macOS Sierra 10.12.2, but was today reissued with the fix.

Customers who have not downloaded the security update at all will get the new version when updating their machines, while customers who previously installed the security fix will receive a supplemental update to address the freezing problem.
The OS X El Capitan Security Update 2016-003 Supplemental Update fixes a kernel issue that may cause your Mac to occasionally become unresponsive.
Mac users who are still running OS X El Capitan can download the update through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store, and direct download links are also available (Standard Update/Supplemental Update).

The original 2016-003 update fixed a number of security vulnerabilities in the OS X El Capitan operating system.

42 comments


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Sylvan
28 months ago
I think you may have missed the obvious sarcasm in his post.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Daniel Reed
28 months ago
It's a security update, not a feature change.
Yes, folks should apply the patch.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Bart Kela
27 months ago

Aren't there any reasonable apple users that don't moan and groan the same anti apple stuff every time the slightest little thing happens? And why don't you move to Windows and receive those very other day updates? That will give you lots to complain about.

I understand how complex computers have become and how hard it can be to prevent issues. I applaud Apple for what they do. I deplore users who love to complain for the sake of complaining. They should be banned from using Apple products, which frankly, are too good for them.

Smilies were invented to add some subtlety to online written communications. In this case, they communicate sarcasm and the emojis used were correctly employed.

Next time, when a contributor includes emojis, think about what made them consciously decide to include those in the post.

As a matter of fact, MORE people here should use emojis since there are a large number of readers for whom English is not their first language.

Thank you for reading. :D
Rating: 4 Votes
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coumerelli
28 months ago
Ugh, ANOTHER security update? Can't apple EVER get ANYTHING right?



;):rolleyes:
Rating: 3 Votes
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Larry The L
28 months ago

Man 10.11.6 is running fine on my 12" rMB do I want to rattle the bee's nest ?


No. Wait until you crash, lose your data, scream so loud you have a stroke, and then update.

Ugh, ANOTHER security update? Can't apple EVER get ANYTHING right?



;):rolleyes:


Aren't there any reasonable apple users that don't moan and groan the same anti apple stuff every time the slightest little thing happens? And why don't you move to Windows and receive those very other day updates? That will give you lots to complain about.

I understand how complex computers have become and how hard it can be to prevent issues. I applaud Apple for what they do. I deplore users who love to complain for the sake of complaining. They should be banned from using Apple products, which frankly, are too good for them.
Rating: 2 Votes
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di1in
27 months ago
El Capitan 10.11.6 on my rMBP is so stable I may not update to Sierra until its 10.12.6 is out. This security update will keep me content in the meanwhile.
Rating: 1 Votes
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Gasu E.
27 months ago

It wasn't very obvious.


Only if you missed the two emojis; for native English speakers, the extremely the silly tone helped as well.
Rating: 1 Votes
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Whitfield
27 months ago

Holy crap, this was APPLE'S fault?? I've been banging my head against this problem for weeks now, trying to figure out what "kernel task" could possibly be demanding 95% of my 2012 rMBP's resources. :mad:


Not sure about others' experience here, but not only has this not fixed my kernel_task errors, but now I'm experiencing even more memory/CPU headaches. Every hour or so almost all of my apps will become unresponsive, they can't be brought to the front or quit normally. If I force quit them then I can easily open them again, so it's not an issue with total load on the system (2012 rMBP/16GB/750GB with 120GB free). I've already run fsck and other housecleaning tasks and restarted multiple times. I'm about to throw this *&$% computer out the window.
Rating: 1 Votes
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fhall1
27 months ago
Installed this on my 2015 rMBP - I walked away while it was installing, came back about 15 minutes later to a black screen, hit the trackpad and got the colored pinwheel. Waited 10 minutes and nothing but the colored wheel. Powered off and on, login screen appeared, and I entered my password. Then the "spoked" wheel appeared and stayed. I left it for 15 minutes with no change. Powered off, booted in safe mode, tried to login and got the spoked wheel again.

Started some Googling and eventually followed the procedure here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7428876?tstart=0 (thank goodness I had an Administrator account set up). Used Terminal to delete the 4 files and then restarted. After that my login went fine.
Rating: 1 Votes
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tywebb13
28 months ago

Is Apple still supporting Mavericks with any security updates if needed?


Not anymore. The oldest one still supported as such is yosemite, which will probably cease when macOS 10.13 is released.

But this El Capitan one updates the build number from 15G1212 to 15G1217.
Rating: 1 Votes
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